Vivus Comedit
by flavumetrubrum
Summary: The team faces the fate of one of their own.


The stench of blood was overpowering. It permeated the air and consumed his senses, momentarily blocking out his fear and dread. He recovered fairly quickly, however; years of crime fighting and saving innocents had somewhat desensitized him to blood and death. This time, though, it wasn't just some innocent stranger victimized by a bad guy that Robin could chase down. This time it was his own team member – and, more than that, his best friend and the only person he had ever trusted with his secret identity – who had been captured by a monster and dragged to this godforsaken underground lair.

The basement of the warehouse was a maze of low-hanging rusty pipes and rusty metal cages of varying sizes. Blood stained the inside of many of the cages, some of it years old and some of it relatively fresh. Bones and carcasses – both human and animal – were scattered across the floors of the cages. Robin heard Artemis gag behind him as they passed a particularly grisly cage – the stench of rotting flesh was mixed with the nauseating smell of blood and vomit and a decomposing human body was propped up in the corner. It had been chewed and mauled beyond recognition and had obviously been there for several weeks. His own stomach turned but he managed to keep a hold on his composure. He knew that the rest of the team was struggling with this nearly as much as he was, and that as the leader he had to hold it together.

He held out a reassuring hand to his teammate and kept moving forward. At the very least they knew the body wasn't Wally's. He had only been missing for two weeks at that point and would not have been that far decomposed. Still, it didn't speak well for what might have happened to their friend while he was being kept here.

Robin had shut out the possibilities for as long as he could in order to keep functioning. They had discovered records of countless unsolved disappearances that were most likely linked to the monster, and none of its victims seemed to have ever escaped. Even though Kid Flash was a superhero, he was not invincible. In fact, he was every bit as human as Robin and Artemis. He may have had super speed but once caught he was as destructible as any human. And judging by their surroundings he had been kept in a cage. Robin couldn't imagine anything worse for the speedster. With super speed came an unfortunately severe case of claustrophobia; Robin knew that Wally would have hated the trapped feeling more than anything. But that wasn't the worst of it. The bodies had all been found half-eaten and mutilated and there was evidence that the creature fed on its victims until they died and then left their corpses to rot. The chances of finding Kid Flash unharmed were slim to none, and Robin wasn't sure he or the rest of the team would be able to face what they found. He only hoped that he was still alive and the damage had been minimal thus far.

After four years of fighting together as a team, Young Justice was more of a family than anything else. Robin had Batman, but he was the only family he'd had since the sudden and tragic death of his parents. Kaldur and M'gann were far away from their families and hardly ever got to see them. Artemis had the most severe daddy issues Robin had ever seen and Wally had been abused both emotionally and physically by his aloof parents his whole life. Conner had never had a family to begin with. Needless to say, they all needed what semblance of family their group could offer. The thought of one of their family being captured and tortured by a mindless, mutated freak of nature was something none of them wanted to consider.

It had taken them team nearly two weeks after Kid Flash's disappearance to figure out what had taken him and to track him down to this abandoned warehouse. A small voice in the back of his mind kept reminding Robin that his friend would only be able to survive seven days (at best) without food – he wondered if the mutant had the capacity to feed its victims and keep them alive as long as possible or if it simply ate until they died. He couldn't help but fear it was the latter. After they had found the creature's hideout they had watched the entrance for a day, hoping to get some idea of its habits, or at least a good look at their enemy. There was no sign of the monster, however, and after twenty-four hours they had decided to go ahead and venture into the lair in search of their friend. Mere moments later the creature had ventured forth from its lair, sniffing the air with suspicion and creeping out of the warehouse, surprisingly quiet for its size. This had lead to their decision to leave Superboy, Aqualad, and Miss Martian to guard the entrance while Robin and Artemis ventured inside to find their teammate.

As he and Artemis crept further into the dungeon, Robin felt his dread building exponentially. They had passed countless cages, all of them filled with human remains, and had yet to find any sign of their friend. They stopped at a corner, took a deep breath, and stepped around it. The sight that awaited them nearly brought Robin to his knees.

A body that obviously belonged to Kid Flash was sprawled in a cage that was much too small, the red and yellow uniform drenched with blood. The boy's face had been mauled past recognition and his head had been all but scalped by sharp claws. One of his legs was missing completely from the knee down and the other had been almost completely stripped of flesh. Blood was still oozing from between exposed ribs, from which skin and muscle hung in ribbons. A chunk of flesh was missing from one of his upper arms and the other had been torn and broken by the creature's teeth. The bruised and bloodied chest was unmoving and his only remaining eye started vacantly at the ceiling of the cage.

A strangled scream escaped from Artemis' lips as the girl fell to the ground, closing her eyes and pressing both of her hands to her mouth to stifle her violent sobbing. Robin's breath caught in his throat and for a moment his vision blackened dangerously as he stared at what remained of his best friend. Without thinking he lunged for the door of the cage, pulling in vain at the rusty lock and trying with all of his might to get through the metal bars. He didn't even notice the tears cascading down his cheeks or the screams tearing from his lips until Superboy was gently pulling him away from the bars. He was passed to Aqualad, who held him securely in spite of his stuggles as Conner broke the lock and pulled the door open with one yank. As soon as Kaldur's arms relaxed Robin was through the door, on his knees in his friend's blood and hugging the boy to his heaving chest.

"The thing came back. We killed it," Kaldur told him quietly, his own voice choked with tears and full of shock. His face was unusually pale as he took in the sight before him. Even Superboy shook with emotion as he stared with unfocused eyes at the body of their teammate. M'gann had joined Artemis on the floor and was sobbing just as loudly. But nothing mattered to Robin outside of the tiny cage as his fingers searched desperately for a pulse he knew he would not find. He began to rock back and forth, clutching Kid Flash to his chest and burying his face in the boy's bloody uniform. Kid Flash was dead.


End file.
